Skelton Primary School

Highlights from Latest Inspection

What is it like to attend this school?

Leaders create a respectful culture at this school.

Pupils celebrate their uniqueness and flourish in an environment focused on equality. Leaders listen to pupils and provide them with a safe, nurturing place to learn.There are clear routines and expectations in place for behaviour.

Staff apply the behaviour policy consistently. They teach pupils to behave through the 'going for gold' initiative. This rewards pupils' positive attitude to learning and conduct.

Pupils enjoy the challenge to strive for gold and feel the system is fair. Pupils can define what bullying is and know that they can tell an adult if it happens.Adults build positive relationships with c...hildren in the early years.

They help children to move effectively from one activity to another.Leaders provide a range of activities to broaden pupils' horizons. They are aware of the importance of helping children to socialise and mix with others.

Leaders purposefully involve pupils in large local events, such as the secondary school talent show, public speaking events and competitive sport.Leaders develop many aspects of pupils' character. For example, early years children develop teamwork skills in the forest area and key stage 2 pupils build their resilience on their adventurous residential trip.

What does the school do well and what does it need to do better?

Leaders offer a broad and balanced curriculum for pupils from Nursery to Year 6. Leaders adapt a scheme to support teachers' subject knowledge and confidence in subjects such as geography and art. They have identified the essential knowledge they want pupils to remember at the end of each unit.

However, the curriculum does not consistently meet the needs of a mixed-age class. Leaders are aware of this and are reviewing how this can be improved.

Teacher's use the 'Connect' strategy at the start of each lesson.

This means pupils have opportunities to make connections to learning from previous lessons. Leaders are developing this into a more structured approach called 'Super Six', where they revisit learning from the previous lesson, week, term and academic year.

Teachers group pupils for phonics teaching according to their needs.

This ensures that pupils apply the phonic knowledge they have to successfully read and write new words. Adults are highly skilled in supporting pupils to read. Children start accessing phonics in Nursery in the summer term to prepare them for Reception.

Leaders check regularly that pupils are remembering sounds. Pupils who are not keeping up with reading receive additional phonics tutoring. Intensive phonics training for staff, provided by the trust, has improved the quality of phonics teaching.

Teachers provide opportunities for pupils to use mathematical vocabulary. Pupils talk about their previous learning in mathematics and how it helps them to understand new learning. Leaders ensure that the mathematics curriculum is responsive to the needs of the mixed-age class.

It is ambitious for pupils. However, in the wider curriculum, the curriculum and work set do not meet the needs of pupils of different ages in mixed-age classes. This means older pupils are not building on what they already know.

The early years team establishes a calm and purposeful learning environment for children. Its members ensure that children have access to a wealth of interesting and engaging resources. They use the outdoor provision effectively to support physical development.

Adults help children to negotiate and manage their own risks. For example, children repeatedly jumped off high blocks over skittles with pride. Children with special educational needs and /or disabilities (SEND) in early years are identified quickly and receive the support they need.

Across the school, pupils with SEND have termly targets to achieve. While the targets on the plans are appropriate, pupils have limited opportunities to practise them.

There is a whole-school approach to teaching about healthy and unhealthy relationships.

Pupils describe healthy relationships as kind, nice and supportive. There are leadership opportunities for pupils. The school council are active in supporting the community to clean the nearby park.

They have organised a campaign to design posters to keep the area tidy.

Staff appreciate the close working relationship with another school and the trust. It reduces their workload, which helps their well-being.

The trust and local governing committee hold leaders to account well. They have a clear oversight of the school's strengths and next steps.

Safeguarding

The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.

Leaders ensure that staff have up-to-date safeguarding training through regular staff meetings. Leaders use the personal, social and health education curriculum to teach pupils how to stay safe and make them aware of local risks.Pupils can report concerns about their welfare and safety to any adult.

Pupils are confident that staff know them well. Adults notice when pupils are anxious and offer appropriate support.Pupils know how to stay safe online.

They know to use a complex password to keep their personal information safe.

What does the school need to do to improve?

(Information for the school and appropriate authority)

• In the wider curriculum, leaders have not mapped out the important knowledge that pupils need to learn. In addition, they have not adapted the curriculum sufficiently well to meet the needs of mixed-age classes.

Leaders should work with staff to improve how well pupils in mixed-age classes learn in the wider curriculum. ? Leaders do not ensure that the tasks that teachers set pupils with SEND help them to meet their targets. They should work with staff to make sure that teaching and the tasks set enable pupils with SEND to progress through the curriculum.